Actress Kim Go-eun spoke about the deep emotional and physical preparation needed to build the character of Mo-eun for Netflix’s new mystery thriller “The price of confession”. Speaking at a bar in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, on December 12, he detailed why he accepted the challenging role and the intense discussions behind defining his direction.
The series follows Yoon-su, a woman framed for the murder of her husband, and Mo-eun, a mysterious figure feared as a “witch.” Their intertwined secrets create a dark, psychological narrative.
Kim Go-eun revealed that she first encountered an early version of the script long before the project was finalized. “I saw the script during a very early monitoring phase, not because it was offered to me. I remembered it later, while I was filming You and everything else. When I heard that Jeon Do-yeon sunbaenim was doing it, and the character still seemed compelling to me, I asked for the role.
When asked about the evolution of the character compared to the previous draft, Kim Go-eun said that many elements needed to be reworked: “Mo-eun initially had a strong tendency to appear psychopathic. But when I played the role, some parts seemed inconsistent. If she were truly psychopathic but was later proven not to be, how would she behave on her own? Those contradictions created narrative problems.”
Kim Go-eun instead proposed a different psychological interpretation: “Mo-eun is not acting suspiciously: she has simply been misunderstood. She has lost emotional function. She is a person who has been ’emotionally castrated’. Her past trauma needed to be shown clearly so that viewers could understand why she is like a person whose emotions have shut down.
The hardest part, he said, was playing someone who genuinely had “nothing to lose.” “Mo-eun probably wants to kill herself more. That’s why no suspicion or pressure hits her, not from prosecutors, judges or the public. She’s always in this state of ‘So what?'”
His reactions were intentionally minimal and one-dimensional, except for moments when fragments of his old self briefly surfaced, such as when he cries after seeing Yoon-su on the news.
Kim Go-eun further explained the controversial scene where Mo-eun strangles Gu Hee-young: “When she is dragged away by the inmates, she is not ‘releasing’ her emotions, but simply letting go. She is thinking, ‘I should be the one to die.'”
As for Mo-eun’s ending, Kim Go-eun is convinced that her character really intended to take her own life: “Putting pills in his noodles was no show for Yoon-su. He really tried. Whether Yoon-su would come or not wasn’t guaranteed. He wanted to go to his father and younger brother. He continued to live just to fix what he had caused.”
One of the most talked about aspects of her transformation is Mo-eun’s dramatic haircut. Kim Go-eun revealed that it was her idea and even proposed an almost shaved style. “When I read scripts, appearance comes first for me A museI suggested cutting my long hair into a bob. For this role, I thought Mo-eun shouldn’t hide behind her hair. In reality I wanted an almost sensational cut, but for everyone’s sake I cut it a little less. However, I didn’t use hair clippers.
He laughed as he recalled the reactions: “Everyone who saw it said, ‘Oh wow…!’ I had never cut it this short before. I didn’t know the importance of perms until now!”
Kim Go-eun stressed that her concern was not to appear conventionally pretty, but to appear fitting for the character: “I prefer to look like the character rather than be visually refined. If the emotion reads well on camera, that’s what’s beautiful to me.”
To achieve Mo-eun’s gaunt, taut look, she avoided puffiness and carefully managed her body: “I tried not to bloat. I didn’t eat dinner before shooting and avoided cereal the day before. My goal wasn’t a number, but to appear visually dehydrated.”
As Kim Go-eun continues to expand her acting range and deepen her artistic presence with each new project, public interest in both her career and personal reflections shows no signs of slowing. With her candid charm and constant professionalism, she remains one of the most followed actresses of her generation.
Sources: Daum
